Sketch practice

Sketch from my Moleskine!!

This day I wanted to draw something different and faster to do. The drawing bellow is done with black rotring, and the two faces are done with a blue pen directly, without a sketch.

Next days will be a little busy for me, but once September is started, around the second week, I will have more time, hopefully.

Present: Blue Star

Something different for today!!

Another present for a friend!! In this case, I tried to use, for the wrapping, what I had at hand at the moment. I used a normal sheet to wrap the present, plastic tape to give color to it, and some cords around the present. On top of the bow I decided to sew a star with felt. Why these colors? Well, those were the principal colors of the present inside (also the star)!

The tag was also handmade with cardboard. I stamped the blue stars with a little sponge and there I wrote my friend's name with a gold marker (I just erased it with the computer to show it here, of course, my name was added with the computer, it would not be right :) ).

More for tomorrow, have a nice day!!

Cleaning up

Fast watercolor sketch from my old Moleskine I forgot to post here.

For this, I remembered that when I was a kid. I loved to wash my toys clothes in a washbowl, just like my grandmother did (even with a washing machine in the house, she preferred to wash with her hands if she had time). I specially remember doing it in summer, in my old house's patio, because always part of the water fell on me :). Maybe they didn't get THAT clean, but it was fun.

Lately I'm remembering so many things of my childhood I'm even surprised. A drawing I'm working with right now (digital) is inspired by my old house. Our own children's memories are the best inspiration we can get!. We just need to look back.

See you tomorrow!!

Asphalt and foundation

Asphalt and foundation to break through when you need to breathe again.

A little experimentation from my old Moleskine with watercolor markers. Also something different to what I usually post here but that I wanted to show anyway.

Have a nice day and see you tomorrow!!

Studies

Some days ago, I was asked by a friend to contact a young relative of hers. This girl was interested about art; she likes to draw, and wanted to know about what I studied in my Illustration studies. A few days ago I talked to my friend about this again, and it gave me the idea to tell you what I talked with her about. 

Please, keep in mind I’m talking about my own experience with Illustration studies, here in Spain more specific in Cordoba, I can’t know exactly if that’s the same case out there, because every school is different. I’m just giving you my point of view.

Is it really necessary to have "talent" or vocation for art studies? In my opinion, I would say it's important to have “talent”, it will help you for sure, but what I really think is important is the student's interest/vocation. Even if the student is not "very talented", if he/she really wants to learn and is motivated enough, it will go ok, maybe with a little more effort, but they could get it.

One thing I recommended to this girl to think about is that she should get there with an open mind, and ready for critiques. This world is subjective, maybe too much, even if teachers try hard to be as objective as possible to their students, I think it's something really hard to get, because their opinion or likes and preferences always "show up", even a little.

Something they wanted us to try in Illustration was trying out different styles (and different “themes” inside Illustration), we may dislike some of them, but they encourage you to experiment and to get you out of your comfort zone (once you are graduated you can do anything you want, but it will help you to have a different point of view of things, and in the future, to define your art, style, or whatever). This happens with any illustration, photography or graphic design studies, for sure, they will try to get you to experiment with different styles, techniques...

  

If you want to study art, please be aware of this, not everyone is “ready”. Maybe you will get out of there not drawing the way you did before, it depends on the person and their way to draw, or maybe you will want to keep using your style every time, and depending on the teacher, it can give you a hard time. In my case, I'm glad they showed me many different styles, I learnt a lot and it’s helping me a lot right now.

Do you need to study art to be an illustrator?  Not really. Would it help you (in your curriculum, to learn more...)? Sure it would, but some of the most famous illustrators nowadays didn't actually study "illustration". Some of them studied originally graphic design, and others studied nothing related to art, but ended working as illustrators. You won't draw necessarily better if you study art, you are the one who decide what you want to be, everything depends on you.

Long post for sure, but I thought it was time to write about it now that school time is close. Have a nice day and tomorrow there will be something different, I promise ;).

Butterfly in a jar

 Again another illustration from my Moleskine. I drew it almost at the same I drew this one. Also with gouache and rotring! Although I used a slightly different style with this one, but just a little ;)

I will post something written for tomorrow here in my blog, if all goes well. I also got some ideas for other posts, but I need "to research" before, and time to write them.

I have too many things to do for next month. The end of this one is being very busy, in different aspects.

So, see you tomorrow!!

Book Style

Today I'm busy, and a little tired, but I will get some sketches scanned. Blame busy Sundays.

For now, it's a little bookmark, which was posted here on my Facebook page. It was originally drawn in my Moleskine, as you can see below these lines. The girl and typography were drawn traditionally with sepia ink and watercolor, and later I edited the background digitally and retouched the girl "hair" to adapt the drawing to the bookmark format.

Here is the illustration as I drew it in my Moleskine.

That's all for now! Tomorrow something new.

At the bus stop

Quick ink and watercolor drawing from my Moleskine. I wanted to try out a fast and irregular style, which relaxed me a lot at that moment.

Tomorrow I won't post anything here or anywhere, because a friend of mine who is living right now in another city will come here for a few hours!! She won't come back again for a time, so I will be out almost all day to enjoy the day with her. Tomorrow I will also have to wait at the bus stop :D!!

So, a day of rest to my blog :). Have a nice day!!

Call me?

A little mouse as a telephone. I think it was the one which gave me the idea to try out a series of "animal-object", like this one, though I wanted to try it with another style, a little vintage.

I had a lot of fun with it (which started as a little sketch in my Moleskine).

These days I have been drawing more digital illustrations, and I think I will be showing them during September if I get to draw some more.

So, have a nice day and tomorrow more!!

Red balloon

Another illustration from my Moleskine with watercolors, rotring and red pencil. I wanted to draw the principal entrance of an irregular city, unsteady and with cold colors, except for the boy and the balloon, being they the only who bring color to the city.

Hope you have a nice day! Here it keep trying to improve little by little. Keep on learning something new everyday to find my path :)!

Little kiss

Good morning kiss to the baby!

Illustration from my Moleskine done with gouache, I was surprised this watercolor paper would accept better thin gouache than watercolor itself... I just don't get it. Maybe I use too much water with watercolors...

This illustration makes me remember how kissy I was with my little sister when I was a kid (even now, but just a little less ;) ). Always a "good morning" kiss, an "I'm back home" kiss and a "good night" kiss; well, and some more in between.

Take a moment to give a kiss to those precious people.

Sleepy

It's the same bear you can find here, only with some friends.

Also it's done with acrylics and Chinese ink for the background.

I just wish I could sleep right now... but I have work to do!!. I almost finished another digital illustration, and I am thinking about what to do next... I will have to choose something from my pile of sketches :).

Have a nice day and see you tomorrow!!

Fly away

Again two illustrations from my Moleskine that I had posted in my Facebook page but not here. Both of them with watercolors.

For the first one, I wanted to make a picture which looks different when you flip it vertically, showing a different concept in each section... so maybe you will have to turn your head a little?.

The second illustration is a little conceptual, as if the paper plane is telling her to keep moving... fly away!!.

I'm sorry I can't show anything new today, but I'm busy! I need time to stop so I have time to finish all I need!!. Yesterday, I finished taking some photos for my sister and myself, and it was a good way to change my routine. I missed preparing and planning a improvised "set" to take photos (I enjoy that moment more than the actual time of taking the photo itself). Now the bad thing is that I need to find time to retouch them for her. Well, I'll find it!! :)

Have a nice day and tomorrow more!!

The room

Today is photo day! I'll be taking photos of my sister's "atrezzo" for her final project's explanation, because she couldn't take photos of it at that moment. I think I'll take advantage of it and I'll take some photos of a handmade atrezzo I made for my Photography class to show here in the near future.

Have a nice day!!

Envelope for Alice

This envelope was one of the first works I did in my second year of Photography. We had to make a corporate gift for an imaginary company. We had to use one of our photos as that gift and a certificate of authenticity for it.

The photo I used is the first photogram of my Alice series.

I created this envelope as if it were a present. I used two different ribbons that were glued together and I sewed the bow on top of the vertical one. I cut Alice silhouette in the front and I glued textured tissue paper inside, so that when you take out the photo, her silhouette will appear coloured. The idea was her to appear as part of the envelope itself, even without the photography inside.

I had to make some handmade atrezzo for some of my photo sessions I would like to show you, but I will write about them on another occasion.

Have a nice day!

On the road

Travelling you can find sometimes the strangest friends, but those will be your best for live if you take your time to know them.

Digital illustration this time!! I had a lot of fun with it, because it made remember when I was little and played with toys and dolls as if they were travelling and they found each other in "the road", in "the airport"... and they talked about their lives and where they would go.

I posted a little wip of this in my Instagram.

See you tomorrow!!

Mr. Bear

An illustration from my new Moleskine done with acrylics and chinese ink, to play mixing different techniques. I made another illustration with this bear (not so alone) I'll try to show soon.

These last days were a little sad, and stressful, but it seems all is going to be all right now. So, I'm in a good mood!!. Also, I plan taking photos of some works I made while studying Photography that I thought you would like to see.

Enjoy your day and tomorrow more!

Watering time!

A little test with Adobe Illustrator.

I created a little series of "animal-object", and it's my favourite. In this case, I wanted to draw a little elephant as if he were a watering can, his ear as a handle, and with a tablecloth on top.

Have a nice day and tomorrow more!! Lately I have been scanning some traditional drawings and working in some digital illustrations, so I will show them here soon!

A letter for you

As time pass by people write letters less and less. It's a pity, I love when I find a letter with my name in my postbox.

I started writing letters to people of my country when I was a young teenager, just because I felt like it. Eventually, I lost contact with these people, but I keep very good memories of that time. I loved to send those friends little presents. I don't regret it, at that time time, it was a very innocent act. If I read the letters now, we were just kids excited to talk with people who lived away with common interests.

Right know, I only write letters with a friend from my country. I knew that person on the internet, and after some time I asked her for her address (even if I can contact that person on internet ;)).

So I keep with this old fashioned tradition of writing letters and sending presents inside. I enjoy choosing what to send that person next time ;)
Go and write a surprise letter!!

So sweet

Today I was not sure about what to show. My sister is watching on TV a program about cakes right now, so here it's a little drawing I made in my old Moleskine.

I drew it after a photo session for class I participated with some of my classmates. The theme was Hansel and Gretel, so we used some cupcakes and sweets as decoration. How many good memories... stressful day for sure, I was scared that day something could go bad. Thankfully all worked fine!!

Later we thought about using it in the layout for the teacher.

So, have a sweet day!! it seems today I will be watching a lot of sweets, on TV at least ;)!!

Smiling girl

A character desing of a little girl, while I practiced another way to color digitally.

Its first sketch was very small... I love making small sketches/drawings, so, I had a lot of fun with it!!

Have a nice and happy day!

Graphic tablets

Once, someone asked me if I had a graphic tablet to draw digital illustrations. I have actually used two... (Well, three if you count the one I used back in school when I studied Illustration).

So, I decided this time to make a post about the two principal graphic tablets I have used more. It's not going to be a post with a list of their characteristics or something like that, I will write only MY OPINION, nothing specific about each one.

The first one I used was one my sister got as a present, this Wacom Bamboo Fun:

Photography property of ©Wacom

I think nowadays it's discontinued, though I know a friend bought it some months ago from Wacom's online shop for a really cheap price, so maybe you could still find it.

It's a very basic tablet, supposedly, though it still works perfectly, considering both my sister and me have used it. It's small, very good to carry around and easy to place everywhere. Its pencil's tip has been very resistant, and it's been more than... five years without having to buy another one (it has never broken, only the wire got a bit worked out after some years, but it's replaceable). It has a little tactile circle zone which is used to rotate the drawing or photo by default, so you don't waste time zooming an image. Also, its surface to draw is very soft.

As I said, it was, in my opinion, a quite good tablet; I drew a lot with it. Right now maybe it has too much use, but it still works perfectly fine.

But as time passed by, my sister used it more and more, and I needed my own, so I got this Intuos4 S as a present:

Photography property of ©Wacom

When I got this one, the Intuos 5 was for sale for a while already, so its price was reduced and it was more affordable.

Did I feel a big difference between this one and the Bamboo? Well, when it comes to sensitivity, yeah. You can make more defined strokes with this one. I also like that it came with ten different tips for the pencil, five of them been just like the basic one.

I have been using it for a year, more or less, and what I don't like about it is that the pencil tips are weaker that the Bamboo's one. It looks like they want you to buy a new one soon, because after very few uses, the tip started to wear away. Also, the tablet sensitive surface is a little rougher that the Bamboo. Though I must say, that even that, it looks like the tip stopped to wear away, and for now, I still use the tip that the pen had integrated when I bought it.

Aside from that, I think it's a very good tablet, perfect for people who wants to have a big control on the strokes and sensibility (I saw the difference), but, I think that the "machine" doesn't make you draw better, you need to learn how to control it.

If you are a beginner, go for one of the new Bamboo Wacom graphic tablets (though I know from some people who got one of the newer with the feature of tactile surface (that Intuos haven't) that have problems precisely with the tactile part while drawing. It can be a little annoying, but I never tried one of them). The Bamboo tablets are perfectly fine, and it depends in your "talent" how your drawing/retouch will look. You can almost make the same thing with both of them, the sensitivity is the only difference (working a little harder you could make the same with one or another).

I recommend you to use the Intuos4 when you already have used another digital tablet, because it can be a little difficult to get used to it. If you want to control the stroke and have more freedom with the pencil and its angle over the surface, go for it. Perfect for digital illustrators, but also quite good for photographer who loves to retouch a lot their photos. You can buy it in different sizes, mine is S (Small) but for me it’s enough, also it's the same size that the Bamboo Fun tablet and I have accustomed to it. I tried one bigger when I was studying, but it was too troublesome for me, I work better with a smaller one.

But again, don't worry too much about the "name" of the machine or even the brand (there are other brands that make tablets, it's just that Wacom is pretty good and you can find them everywhere nowadays); you are the one who holds the pencil. At first, it will be hard, and strange, but practice makes "perfection", so don’t stop trying hard learning how to use it. Once you try it, everything will go smoothly. Give it a try!

Now that’s all for now, if you have any questions or something just tell me!! I’m not an expert, but I will try to help you out all I can!!

Have a nice day and see you tomorrow with an illustration!

Judith

Is Judith is not happy because she missed her 5 o'clock tea?.

Ok, let's get serious, I just wanted to draw a "bust" of a presumptuous girl with overdecorate attire. I also wanted to try using very few watercolors, which I thought would be perfect to define her personality.

For it I used Fabriano paper, if I remember correctly, and sepia ink for the outline.

Two girls

Today I will show you some watercolor illustrations of two little girls from my Moleskine I had posted on my Face Book Page but still not here in my blog:

In my mind, for this illustration, the girl's tears break through the ground, leaving cracks (Feelings can be very powerful!)... but, where will they go?. 

For this one, I thought of a girl wearing a polka dot dress and how suddenly wind blows, causing her dress's dots to fly out from it on the shape of bubbles till they disappear.


I'm preparing a "written" post again. I don't know when I will post it, but I will do it during this week. See you tomorrow!!

Silence

A conceptual illustration from my Moleskine.

Good children should be quiet. They don't know when to shut up, they should be like adults, follow rules and to stay in silence in this too noisy place!.

Poor "kids", their voices don't reach adults.

Asian Girl

Digital illustration of an asian girl, also inspired in 20s.

I had a lot of fun while drawing her because it helped me to practice with a new coloring style, while playing with some new brushes I had not tried before.

Hope you like it!. See you tomorrow!!

Relax

A fast watercolor practice this time!

Today is my relax day!  I will draw a few sketches and maybe I will try some new gouaches I got as a present. No stress allowed.

Enjoy summer break!!

About me

Today, I decided to make something different.

What do you know about myself? I thought a little explanation about me could be interesting.

My name is Carmen Nogales I was born in Córdoba (Spain), where I have always lived. I have a little sister and two turtles. Since forever, I have drawn in every possible surface. It was obvious it was really my passion and love. Since I was a little kid, I decided I wanted to become a painter. I kept on drawing and learning by myself (except for one time, that I did a little course in summer. There I learned to use different materials I had not tried before).

Two phtos of drawings I did when I was very little... I'm ashamed.

But when did I decide I wanted to become an illustrator?

I actually hadn't thought about it at first as a profession, really. I didn't know back then that there could be a profession called "Illustrator". It's curious because I have memories of reading children's books and spending more time examining its drawings than actually reading them. I even had some of them as inspiration for certain drawings.

One day when I was a bit older, there was a little drawing contest at the fair of my village for children only. While I was drawing, a young mother came to me and spend a little time watching me, and suddenly told me: "You draw very well... you should work as a children's book illustrator!". That did impress me, I had never though about that possibility... ever. Since then, the idea of becoming an illustrator haunted me. Oh! By the way, I actually won the first price and my sister won the second.

Later, I decided to make it to an Art College (I'm really grateful my parents did support my choice). There, I was told by a teacher that there was a course quite new in my city about Illustration. It made me really happy to know about it. So, this teacher contacted with one of the teachers that worked there (that some months later would become my teacher) and took me to a visit around the school and explained me everything I needed to know about the course. I decided to study there finally!!

Illustration helped me to know about different styles, and showed me how to take professionally an assignment. It was hard sometimes, but I did it!! Also, it gave me a surprise that I wasn't expecting at all, I illustrated my first published book. I couldn't believe it!!

"Operación Ozono". Editorial Edimater.

Later, I decided to study Photography, because in Illustration I had this as an assignature, and I liked it, so I wanted to give it a try. It sure was expensive, but I don't regret studying it. There I met my classmates, which were lovely!! Also, there I learnt a lot, and it helped me to see I really loved working in a team and to organize/plan projects (for which Illustration helped me a lot in that aspect, I drew there as much as back in Illustration). Photography helped me to meet really nice people (photographers,graphic designers, illustrators, painters...) and see things from a different point of view.

Myself making sketches for a grupal project with all my classmates.

So, here I am, motivated enough to start and trying to find my place in this profession which I love. I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I will try my best to improve and, above all, to keep learning!!. Hope you can accompany me in this travel.

Do you want to see other places where I am? take a look here.

This post sure is long!!, but I thought it was necessary as a presentation. From time to time I'll try to make a post writing about something random more that just showing my own drawings. Do you have any idea? Would you like me to write about something? I already have some ideas, but it would be nice to know what would you like to read.

Have fun and tomorrow a new illustration!!!

Destination

Something conceptual that came suddenly in my mind months ago, and I couldn't fight the urge to capture it in my Moleskine. Maybe that's why it's one of the "strangest" illustrations I have done so far, though I don't dislike it.

I really would love to know what this illustration could express to different people.

I will try to write something different here in my blog tomorrow, (if all goes right, but if it isn't the case, then the day after tomorrow).

Have fun!

Little treasure

This time, it's an illustration done with thin acrylics. It's inspired by autumn, also by forests from Northern countries. And, let's face it, that wheelburrow is inspired by Matilda's movie... I loved that film back when I was a child... and I wanted one to fill it with books like she did.

Fron now on, I will try to upload here daily, and later posting it also in my Facebook Fan Page.

Have a nice day and see you tomorrow!